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Story Highlights

After Smoketown area residents raised questions of fairness, the Metropolitan Sewer District decided to take a fresh look the costs of re-engineering its Logan Street sewage storage basin.

The 17-million gallon basin for sewage and stormwater would be underground, but MSD at first designed it to have a windowless, brick building sitting on top of it - only one of two of 11 proposed or newly built basins to get such an industrial treatment.

The agency has already agreed to take a new look at the building's design, and an architectural firm has offered gussied up facades and other amenities. However, residents have repeatedly asked MSD to hide nearly all the storage facility underground, allowing for a park-like setting.

But Friday afternoon, an MSD official said the agency was taking another look, even as the hole has already been dug and the basin is well into its construction phase.

Logan Street view from proposed open space.(Photo: de leon & primmer)

"We will look at the possibilities," said Steve Tedder, MSD spokesman. "We need to have those answers for the community. But our plan right now is for the building."

Randy Webber, president of the Smoketown Neighborhood Association, said that's the first he's heard MSD was willing to contemplate a change. It means maybe the opposition to the large building may be gaining traction.

"If it's true, I am happy to hear of it," he said. "My constituents made their feelings known very passionately," he said of a Wednesday workshop with the de leon & primmer architectural firm, which is looking at new designs.

"We want to be treated the same as in all the other neighborhoods," Webber said.

Logan Street sidewalk, daytime.(Photo: de leon & primmer)

He said nobody in the neighborhood objects to the location of the storage facility, which like the others is part of an $850 million agreement with state and federal regulators to curb sewage overflows into area waterways. It's going in at Logan and Breckinridge streets and has been designed to be 200 feet by 400 feet, with a current budget of $45 million.

"We don't have a not-in-our-backyard situation," Webber said.

Friday, city officials posted the results of the report Wednesday, and they show buildings with various features and plantings in a park-like atmosphere. The report also listed possible amenities such as a swimming pool on the roof, a vegetative green roof with public access and a dog park.

Tedder said the basin in the excavation phase. It's scheduled to be completed by August 2017, and must be done by the end of next year, under terms of the court agreement.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com.